It seemed like a bit of a foregone conclusion. At the end of the 2017 season, Bo Scarbrough and Damien Harris would both leave Tuscaloosa for the NFL.

Not so fast, Harris said.

Harris elected not to follow Scarbrough to the NFL, and instead made the atypical decision to return to Alabama for his senior season.

Why did he do that, you ask? Scarbrough shared his reasoning behind that decision. It really wasn’t all that complicated.

“I just wanted to be a part of this program for another year,” Harris said via 247sports.

Harris said just being part of something special again — he won a national title in 2 of his first 3 seasons in Tuscaloosa — was the determining factor.

“I could give you a lot of Xs and Os for why I should leave or why I should stay, but at the end of the day I felt very blessed to be a part of this program for three years,” he said via 247sports. “When I was making my decision, that was kind of what was heavy on my mind.

“This program has been so good to me and the people that have been a part of this program have done a lot for me, and I’m incredibly thankful.”

Instead of trying to work his way up the depth chart as an NFL rookie, Harris now has a chance to become the first Alabama tailback to rush for three 1,000-yard seasons. But it sounds like more important to Harris would matching Alabama’s 2012 senior class, which was a part of 3 national titles.

Maybe Harris can even improve his draft stock en route to yet another ring.